I'm back baby.... well sort of!

[spudkopf]

G,day All

After what seems like forever, I'm slowly worming my way back into my much neglected RC tank projects, it all started when I had to set up a new study I had to move all my stuff (and boy do I have a lot of stuff) from one room to another, this entailed moving my tanks to a place where I could see them, which prompted me to finally decide to add the details from sprue packets to my Leopard 2A6, this lead to the much put off fitting of the metal tracks, which lead to the acquisition of some pre-loved metal road wheels, which needed to be striped back, re-primed and then repainted NATO green.....






.....so while I was waiting for the final coat to properly cure, I decided it was about time I finally flashed my Turnigy 9x, I'd put this off as I did not really look forward to having to break out the soldering iron but while googling what I needed to do I discovered the Smartieparts boards and got myself a Basic and as I was going to have it RX open anyway I decided to get myself a back light kit as well and so.....



.......mmm that paint seems like it just might have hardened enough to let me see how one looks with the treads back on......



Things will still only be moving along a snails pace however, but I think I've managed to re-enthuse myself enough to start looking at completing my much forlorn StuG III project. Needless to say there's a lot of catching up to do, but in some respects, some things during my absence seem to have become a little easier, case in point the SmartieParts board for example.

So as you can see I'm short I'm kinda, sorta back, well maybe?

[phyrephish]

Most excellent Spudster, been hoping you'd pop out of the ground again. Totally selfish on my part as I have finally gotten some 3D printers and sourced a great place for decal printing. Hopefully, get some new joint projects started.

Cheers
KG

[spudkopf]

G'day Phymaster

Selfish yourself away, as you know that it works both ways, and I'm sure you'll be able to scratch my back with a few things in return, just sorry for dropping so far off the radar in the first place.

[phyrephish]

Deal - so let's get to work.......

Have you designed anything 3D lately and have you still got those Stug decal designs???

[spudkopf]

3D.....

Well after I had the opportunity to do a test print of the StuG recoil unit that I had been designing, I decided to do a bit of a rework to eliminate the use of servo arms and instead use a rack and pinion concept, much like that used by the Clark recoil units, the hope is to re-use as much of the existing design as possible, with the idea to also incorporate a elevation in a similar fashion (image below is still the old arm actuated design).




StuG artwork......



Uhm Yes!

[phyrephish]

All my recoil designs still use servo arms. You can't get the fast recol back with 3d printed gear assemblies IMO. Plus a lot easier to mechanically adjust to get the correct amount of recoil travel. Gears for elevation I will eventually get onto but for now using a 4mm ball stud in a groove. Again easier to set up than gears. Also I find printing the servo arms to required lengths also helps. Look at an engine - pistons are not moving up and down on gears. A good design keeping the radial movement of the arm as close to the centerline as possible - ball and socket joints on the links - working well 4 me.

[spudkopf]

Now that I've had a chance to get a little more caught up and have taken a look at your PnZ III recoil unit, I think that I'll just junk mine and rework one of yours to suit the StuG instead. Will have to do a little thinking on how to implement the minimal traverse component with elevation though.